With more than 200 tents located around the city, Portland officials are considering whether they can expand the shelter capacity at the city’s Homeless Services Center.
City Manager Danielle West said councilors could approve an emergency order temporarily relaxing the codes at the homeless shelter, which has 208 beds and is at capacity every night.
“This would be limited to this emergency and very temporary in order to get us through the winter,” she said.
It was one of several ideas that city councilors discussed Thursday night at a discussion about Portland’s encampments. Other ideas ranged from finding additional housing vouchers and adding more police presence at encampments, to authorizing a city-sanctioned campsite.
Both West and Portland Mayor Kate Snyder said sanctioned encampments were not a preferred option, because the city would need to find ways to keep people warm in cold weather. The responsibilities would, in essence, mirror setting up another homeless shelter, Snyder said.
The discussion comes one week after Portland staff cleared an encampment that had been the focus of a city-led crisis response team. The group has spent the summer gathering information about Portland’s unhoused residents, locating shelter beds and housing options and trying to match those spots with people willing to take them. About 180 shelter beds were offered to those living at the Fore River Parkway Trail encampment over a 10-week period, and 12 people accepted those offers. Six others accepted other housing options, according to city officials.
It’s not clear exactly how many beds would be added and how the expanded shelter capacity would be paid for. West said an emergency order would not be ready for City Council consideration until early October.
This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
